Various types of cooling mechanisms have been employed to cool spaces in various types of structures, such as, buildings, data centers, electronics racks, and servers. The cooling mechanisms typically include air conditioning units selected based upon the maximum heat loads predicted to occur in the structures. In this regard, the structures are often provisioned with a single, high output air conditioning unit configured to operate at substantially maximum levels according to the predicted maximum heat loads.
In other instances, the structures are provisioned with multiple high output air conditioning units positioned at multiple locations in the structures and designed to provide substantially maximum levels of cooling to the respective locations in the structures. In these instances, the air conditioning units typically consume the same amount of power with respect to each other and are also configured to operate at substantially maximum power levels according to the predicted maximum heat loads in the structures.
In conventional structures, however, the heat load levels typically remain below the predicted maximum levels and thus, operating the air conditioning units consistently at the maximum levels often results in over-cooling of the structures. This leads to wasted energy and increased operational costs.
It would therefore be beneficial to be able to cool the structures while substantially minimizing energy consumption.